A 20-year-old Youtuber, Matteo Di Pietro, was sentenced to a four-year, four-months term on Wednesday after a Rome judge accepted a plea-bargain with prosecutors over an accident in Rome in June last year in which a five-year-old boy was killed.
Di Pietro, a member of the 'Borderline' Youtube collective, was driving a rented Lamborghini SUV that ran into a Smart car in the Casal Palocco district of the capital, killing the boy and injuring the victim's mother and sister.
He was found guilty of the crimes of aggravated road homicide and causing bodily harm.
Di Pietro's lawyer Antonella Benveduti said the Youtuber would not actually go to prison as he would be able to serve his time via alternative measures.
She said her client had apologized, expressed remorse and pledged to take part in road-safety-awareness campaigns.
The group of Youtubers was allegedly taking part in a social video challenge involving driving the Lamborghini SUV over several days.
Last June a preliminary investigations judge said Di Pietro had "rented the Lamborghini SUV with the sole and obvious purpose of impressing and capturing the attention of young web visitors in order to increase advertising revenue, to the detriment of safety and responsibility, and consequently to proceed at a speed above the indicated limits".
The SUV had allegedly been travelling at over 124 km/h immediately before impact.
Domenico Musicco, the president of road-accident-victims-association Avisl, said the punishment handed down was "derisory" and that justice had not been done for the deceased boy and his family.
Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini also criticized the ruling, saying it showed "justice reform is more necessary that ever"
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